Sisters in Strength

“Young women have a lot of power to affect their neighborhoods for the better.”

-Nathania, 16, Sisters in Strength Participant

Sisters in Strength (SIS) is a 2-year youth organizing program for 15 young women of color, entering 10th or 11th grade. Programming is shaped both by the unique needs and interests of the SIS youth organizers, and by Girls for Gender Equity’s (GGE) vision, mission, and goals. SIS does community organizing around gender-based violence and confronts the multiple layers of individual and institutional discrimination that threaten the safety of girls and women.

Apply to the Sisters in Strength program:

Sisters in Strength appeared in a powerful segment of Anita, Oscar winning director Freida Mock’s stirring documentary about Anita Hill’s brave testimony against U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas and sexual harassment in the workplace. In January, several Sisters traveled to the film’s opening at Sundance Film Festival with GGE Executive Director Joanne Smith and Community Organizer Nefertiti Martin, and to the NYC premiere at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater on June 14, where, in front of over 200 people, feminist icon Anita Hill praised GGE’s youth leaders, saying: “It [GGE’s young people] has given me hope that I can retire now and the next generation is in good hands.”

Now being distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, Anita will be released on March 21st, 2014 at the Angelika Film Center and The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC, as well as in theaters in California, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Please visit Samuel Goldwyn Films for more dates and locations. We invite you and look forward to seeing you at the screening!

One Billion Rising

In commemoration of One Billion Rising, V-Day’s global movement to end violence against women and girls, on February 14, 2013, Girls for Gender Equity in partnership with the YWCA and viBe Theater Experience, hosted One Billion Rising- an intergenerational call to action.

We invited folks from all over to:

– STRIKE: Learn about the Violence Against Women Act and what we can all do to make sure this act gets reinstated to protect victims of violence that are most vulnerable and unprotected and whose rights are being threatened in our current law.

– DANCE: Everyone had the opportunity to learn the “Break the Chains” choreography which was the signature dance of One Billion Rising taught by Sisters In Strength Youth Organizers.

– RISE: Youth and adults paired up at our “Why I’m Rising” video/photo booth to tell the community why they are rising to end violence against girls and women.